The production of devices capable of emitting light through chemical means is well known in the art. Lightsticks, for example, are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,794 while other configurations have also been the subject of many U.S. Pat. Nos. e.g. 3,749,620; 3,808,414; 3,893,938. Additional recent patents include U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,166 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,949.
The devices shown in FIG. 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,938 and FIGS. 5 and 8 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,794 are those over which the devices of the present invention are an improvement. The devices of this type known in the art fail for many reasons, not the least of which include their inability to emit light over the required period of time, their propensity to emit poor quantities of light, their inability to concentrate light in a centralized or uniform area and the like. The devices of the above two patents, for example, do not prevent degradation of the activator solution from loss of volatile components in that the activator solution is contained in a compartment having a transparent or translucent, permeable surface. Additionally, the material, when present, which is used to absorb the activator solution upon activation of the device has not proven to be entirely successful because of its failure to absorb the activator solution uniformly, thereby causing areas of no or dim light and areas of bright light in the device.